1. US Migration

2. African-Americans, WWI-1920s
Who: 1.6 million African-Americans; young, single men
Where: From rural South to northern/mid-western cities (NYC, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis)
When: WWI-1920s (first wave of Great Migration; the Great Migration would continue until 1970)
Why:
Employment; many found better opportunities during WWI when white men left jobs for war;
Wanted to leave sharecropping and violence of the South;
Boll weevil infestation—ruined crops
Impact: Violence, discrimination, and racial segregation in the North. Black communities arose (ex., Harlem). Labor shortage in South.
Ohio History Connection, 3/6/1920

3. Dust Bowl Migrants, 1930s Who: Midwestern farm families
Where: From Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas Panhandle, eastern New Mexico and eastern Colorado west to California
When:
Why: Over-farming and drought caused “Black Blizzards”—Dust Bowl in which topsoil blew away in windstorms
Impact:
Over 2.5 million farmers and settlers (25% of population) moved to the west coast
Some states (CA) found the migrants “undesirable”; many were turned back

4. Mexican-Americans, 1930s-60s
Who: Braceros—poor Mexican farmers/ agricultural laborers (migrant workers) –mostly men
Contract workers, temporary
Where: TX, AZ, NM, CA
When: Most heavily during WWII. Bracero Program
Why: Braceros Program--need for cheap agricultural labor when American laborers left for WWII to harvest fruit and grain
Impact:
By 1955, 400,000 Mexicans workers traveling through U.S. states annually
After war, conflict between M-A laborers and returning soldiers;
1943 Zoot Suit Riots—M-A attacked by Americans; Mexican Ambassador compared it to Nazi attacks
Operation Wetback (deported Mexican laborers)
NPR: "Three Things to Know about Operation Wetback"